As long as women have used accessories to adorn their hair they have needed some means of containing or displaying those accessories. This was usually accomplished with a box or shelf. Victorian women used elaborate vanity boxes that were often just one part of the vanity sets that were openly set out on their dressing tables.
Gonzales, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,758, devised a yarn braid to which small objects could be clamped or pinned. She attached the braid to a display board on which were also mounted boxes and holders for objects that could not be attached to the braid.
A vertical holding device for ornaments, jewelry, scarfs and the like that uses long strips of hook and loop type fasteners attached to a base panel of fabric is taught by Daniels. The hook and loop type fastening strips can be pulled into loops to hold the articles. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,117,988) This device is not practical for use with delicate fabrics such as silk scarfs because they can be pulled and damaged by the fastening strips.
At one time salesmen of ladies' hair ornaments used their own display means to show their wares. Gutterman in U.S. Pat. No. 1,574,192 teaches a display pad for barrettes. The pads had stiff backing and interior cushioning with stiff holding strips on which to clamp the barrettes. Several of such pads could be stacked in a case. Today's hair accessories have expanded far beyond barrettes and such display means would not be adequate for all of the products now available.
Additional products for use as vertical display means but not practical for hair ornaments and scarfs are: a multiple coat hanger support that is a wire with evenly spaced coils (U.S. Pat. No. 2,609,104 to Leach); a wall display device made of long strips of mesh to which can be attached hooks for pictures, record albums and the like (U.S. Pat. No. 3,853,226 to Hine et al.); and a doll pole consisting of a fabric tube with interior rods to maintain the tube as a pole, and with ribbons attached at intervals which can be tied around the dolls so they can be displayed (U.S. Pat. No. 4,749,088 to Workman et al).
There is a need for a device to hold and display a variety of hair accessories such as barrettes, combs, clamps, scrunchies and scarfs, as well as small objects like hair pins and rubber bands, so that all can be neatly arranged and at the same time clearly visible to the user. There is also a need for such a device that is attractive enough to be hung in plain view and that adds to a room's decor at the same time as it provides the useful and easily accessible storage and display capacity for the accessories.